WTF?! Zoe Saldana Replacing Mary J. Blige As Nina Simone In Biopic?

I’m pretty sure Nina Simone made that face as she turned over in her grave at this news.

Just putting it out on the table, no one was overly eager about Mary J. Blige playing the legendary Nina Simone in a movie about the singer/songwriter/ pianist/activist’s intriguing life in the first place, but finding out that Zoe Saldana could be taking over her part is just, well, like, WTF?

No official announcement has been made, but Shadow and Act has confirmed the news which was shared by one of their readers with two sources, including a crew member who is supposed to be working on the project. As far as those individual’s are concerned, the part is as good as Zoe’s.

There’s just so much to say about this cast change. On one hand, the directors are going with an actual actress, which 99 percent of the time is a good thing considering how quick the industry is to throw a role to a singer instead of someone who has actually honed the craft of acting. On the other hand, Nina Simone was a jazz singer, this may have been one of those instances where a person who can actually sing should get the part. Maybe. The bigger issue, though, that I’m sure is slapping everyone in the face is a lighter-skinned woman portraying a dark-skinned icon yet again.

People told us to let it slide when Harriet Tubman was turned into a mulatto in that fictitious Abraham Lincoln movie but this is a biopic. If you can’t even be true the woman’s skin tone what else are they going to take creative license with? And why is it never a priority to maintain that element of one’s character, and always a priority to make one lighter than they really are? I know, I know, I already know that complex answer.
I’ll give the team behind this project the benefit of the doubt and assume Viola Davis, Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose, and my favorite "Adepero Oduye", and every other stellar brown-skinned actress who we haven’t seen in a main role in ages and who could take this part and make it amazing was busy the last time they had a brainstorming meeting. With no formal announcement coming out yet, let’s hope they go back to the drawing board and think this through. Right now this sounds like a fail.

So WE HOPE they will change, because Zoe is not a good choice,for sure!

References: Madame Noire

She is just lovely!

Nina Simone in her dressing room at the Village Gate in Manhattan before a live recording session in March 1965. Photo by Sam Falk/New York Times Co./Getty Images.

Nina Simone Film Starring Mary J. Blige 2012

The film will star singer Mary J. Blige who will play the role of the jazz legend in the midst of her relationship with assistant Clifton Henderson.

Written by Cynthia Mort, the movie has actually been put off for years and just in 2010, it was sold, financed, and started being shooting  last year. It had been financed to the tune of $10 million, cast (Mary J. Blige & David Oyelowo in the starring roles), and was booked to start filming at the end of May 2011. 

Well, It had to be delayed until October 2011, because, as you may recall, Mary J Blige later signed on to co-star in Rock Of Ages with Tom Cruise and the rest of that film's cast, which is currently shooting.

It makes sense I suppose. Blije and her people must have felt that starring in the bigger budgeted Hollywood Rock Of Ages with Tom Cruise was far more important to her burgeoning acting career, than starring in an independently-financed and produced movie based on Nina Simone's life whose box office potential was uncertain.

Though I tend to get a little worried about projects that at first are announced as sure-things, and then get pushed around for one reason or another, no matter how valid. So, I won't be too surprised if it's eventually announced that the project is dead, or if it gets postponed again for some other reason.

Another positive thing that this postponement means is that Ms Blige will have more time to prep for her performance as Nina Simone. The MSN report acknowledges this by stating that she plans to spend the summer "researching the life of late jazz and blues legend."

"I have a lot of YouTube [footage] of her to study her and I read about her and talked to different people about her... I need to become whoever she was and dig in... I got to get a piano coach and a dialect coach to play her. Acting is something that I'm testing and it's working. I don't think I'm gonna become Meryl Streep... but I'm going to do the stuff that people believe in me for,"

 said Ms Blige.

Now we are just waiting, I hope this movie come this year like they said.  I'm very excited about it!!! 

References: Shadow and Act , eurweb